A Golden Heart
by itsjustsomeguy
Summary: After the end of centuries of battle in the third Sailor Wars, new Sailor Crystals have blossomed. A mysterious figure from beyond the edge of that new galaxy has arrived in search of those who hold them. When one girl from the young kingdom of Earth discovers she has one herself-a Golden Crystal-she is on the run. The First Guardians of a new Galaxy are about to be born.
1. One

**A Golden Heart**

**One**

They called it a Looking Glass. My father held the thing in his hand, raising it up to show me and my sisters proudly. I liked seeing him this way—smiling, giving away a slight hint of his youth compared to the other parents in our row of small houses we lived in. Father had told us that The Emissary, the man who had arrived from beyond the Outer Reaches, had given to him himself. I had never known Father to be marveled like that, but it's not every day someone from _beyond _our galaxy shows up bearing gifts like food and technologies we had never seen.

Elsa, my younger sister, was marveled. "What did he look like, Papa?"

"Quite tall," he answered. "Hair like silver!"

"Like the Moon Queen?" Yvette, my older sister, had said.

We all paused to look at her quizzically. It was strange to hear her reference the children's tale of the Beautiful Moon Queen that had been passing from one kid to another after they heard it from one of the other Visitors from the Inner Kingdoms. The Visitors had come a few years ago to share their works and creations with us. We had found out that we were the youngest Kingdom in the system and that they had come teach all of us on Earth things like creating weapons, instruments, and machines. All of them had said they had seen the fabled Moon Queen. I'm not sure if I believe them. There's no reason for her to stay up there and not visit us!

"Like the Moon Queen," Father confirmed with a smile.

Elsa and Yvette grinned and laughed. She and Yvette looked like mother when they laughed—copper haired and dark eyed. The two beauties of the family. The moment Elsa turns 15, she'll have the boys all over her like Yvette.

"Was he beautiful, Father?" I asked, clearly for my sisters' benefits. Yvette had been boy crazy, surrounded by paramours, lately and Yvette obsessed with the Prince character in the plays she had seen the week before.

"Very," father said. "He may even rival your mother's beauty!"

"_I heard that, Roy!," _mother's voice called out from the kitchen. The smell of roasting fish wafted into the room. "Yvette, can you come in and help your poor mother out? Your father may be leaving me for this _beautiful_, _tall, silver-hared_ Emissary!"

Even I laughed.

Yvette got up from her seat and Elsa, always her shadow, followed her toward the kitchen She looked at me and waved.

"Elyn," she said in a hushed, childish voice. "I'll steal away a cookie for you!"

"I knew you were my favorite sister, Els," I told her loudly.

Yvette popped her head out from the kitchen door. "Hey, _I _heard that!"

I gave her a wink. She stuck out her tongue playfully and popped back in with Elsa coming with her.

Father stood up, passing me the glass. I regarded it for a moment. It was quite beautifully made—a gray, round piece of translucent glass, held by a bearing of bright gold, with a handle of intricately carved wood. It felt cool to the touch. I held it up to look at father. I expected to see something marvelous and magical—but I just saw my father. A handsome man with hair black as onyx and eyes blue as the sea. The one I take after to a fault-straight as a bean, sharp features and with only the faintest touches of girlhood on a 17 year old frame. The glass seemed to hum in my hand. It felt strange.

"What does it do?" I asked. I gave it back to him, shaking my hand immediately after.

"Why, Endelyn Belgrave, I can tell you exactly that!" he said in an official manner. He pulled a brass badge from his pocket proudly and placed it in my hand. "It came with my promotion!"

"Promotion?!" I exclaimed, suddenly realizing why my mother was slaving away in the kitchen. "Is that why mother was making fish pies?"

They were father's favorite.

"Your mother deemed it appropriate to celebrate the newest member of The Emissary's Looking Glass Guard!"

I clapped my hands together. "That's amazing!"

An itch began in the corner of my mind. I had a need to know more about the looking glass, its peculiarity clawing at me like a riddle I couldn't' solve. Was it humming? I could hear something very slight, but perhaps it was in my head. I was abuzz with excitement. Maybe Father could afford to send me to school to work or let me work with the Visitors.

"But you didn't answer my question. What does it do?"

Father looked into the Glass in his hands. His voice grew slightly quiet.

"It's to look for these things called Sailor Crystals."

"Sailor Crystals?"

"He told us that the a number of the Visitors may be holding them. Even someone here on Earth may have one. They could be very dangerous."

"Dangerous?" I narrowed my eyes. I couldn't imagine a Visitor causing any danger to us. They were here to help us-to catch us up so that we may join their Kingdoms. "Should we be worried?"

"Of course, not, my heart," he replied after a pause. "The Emissary just wants to ensure they do not affect this Galaxy like his own. He had left his own Galaxy after a terrible war that started because of these _Sailor Crystals_. He doesn't want that for us."

I nodded. "Have they found any yet?"

Father looked up, as if he was searching for the answer.

"Oh, yes. In the Capital. One of those Visitors from Mercury had them. A young woman, I believe. She started a flood somehow."

_A flood? _I thought. _Gran-Terra City was nowhere near a river._

"But the Looking Glass Guard subdued her and no one else was hurt."

_No one else. _I repeated in my mind. I didn't like the sound of that.

I stood silent for a moment longer. "Is the Visitor okay?"

Father didn't say anything. I'm sure he sensed that "You have nothing to worry about. We're a perfectly normal family from Earth. We have nothing to do with those Sailor Crystals. I shall show you."

With a gentle and reassuring smile, he pulled up the Looking Glass and pointed it at me. A faint, violet light pulsed from the Glass' center outward. I could no longer see my father through it.

"See there's nothing…"

Within an instant, his hand dropped and face turned pale.

Within an instant, my stomach dropped.

Within an instant, I knew my life as I knew it was over.


	2. Two

**A Golden Heart**

Two

A heavy silence hung in the air between Father and I. We were both frozen in place and I could see sweat form on his forehead. Father made the first move and put the Looking Glass on the dining table he had been sitting at. His knees appeared to buckle and he tried to steady himself. I rushed to his side.

"What did you see?" I asked him, in a hushed voice. There were tears forming in his eyes and his hand clasped around his mouth. He could barely look at me. He did not answer.

"Father," I said, my own voice breaking. "Did you see one of those crystals? In me?"

A painful nod.

I couldn't say anymore as my eyes began to water. My stomach began to pull itself in knots. The thought of this Sailor Crystal in my body—the one that the Emissary wants—sickened me. I immediately thought of the Visitor from Mercury who had caused the flood. Was it the Crystal that caused that? Or was she wicked because of the Crystal. I pulled away from Father when I heard the kitchen door swing open. I immediately wiped away eyes and straightened myself out.

"My loves," Mother said, peaking out quickly. "Will you set the table? Dinner will be ready shortly."

I nodded and smiled large, making sure Father was covered. Mother disappeared back into the kitchen. All I could hear were the sniffles behind me and the giggles from the kitchen. Then I heard Father get up from his seat. I turned around and saw a resolute face.

"Tell your mother and your sisters to stop what they're doing, to pack up," he said quietly. He was holding my shoulders firmly. "If we leave now-"

I was looking at him in confusion.

"Endelyn," he continued. "We are going to run away. As far as we can. As fast as we can. The Looking Glass Guard will come by morning to look for me when I do not show up, so we can make our way to one of the southern villages. And then we keep moving…"

He continued to speak of his plan to start moving. Images in my mind swirled—ones of us running. Uprooting their lives. Because of me. By having this thing inside me, I have condemned my family as criminals. I began to shake my head.

"Father," I whispered. He didn't stop. I placed my finger to his lips. "Father, please. I will not ruin our family's lives. They will catch us-"

He began to protest. I stopped him, placing a finger on his mouth, before he could get a word in.

"They will catch us. Yvette and Elsa have hardly stepped outside of the village. Mother's bones are frail. They're not built like us."

A pause only filled with with the muffled sound of the kitchen behind us.

"My heart," he told me. "What if they catch you?"

"Then they will have me and you can tell them that you had no idea—I had run away when you discovered the Sailor Crystal."

"Why would I tell them that!? I could never do that to you"

"Your daughter suddenly disappearing when you get a Looking Glass? They will suspect you, they will suspect Mother—they'll even suspect your other daughters."

Father stood silent, a stream of tears began to fall from his eyes. He shook his head but his blue eyes reflected understanding.

"Father, please set the plates. Tell them I was fetching something in town. Let them be happy one last time before you tell them what I've done?"

"But you didn't do anything."

"Please, father."

I held him closely for just a moment. I wanted to tell him that I loved him, but it would only further root my feet to the floor.

"Be safe my darling," he whispered.

I wanted to say so much-that I loved him, I loved my mother, and my sisters. But I could only tell him, "Tell them I've run north along the river."

I pulled away and quietly made my way out of the door for the last time.

I try to flush my mind of my family. My life. My home.

I am unsuccessful.


End file.
